


ride home

by bituin



Series: butchog au [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: Filipino
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23053165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bituin/pseuds/bituin
Summary: jihoon comes home with seungcheol and relives the moments, the feelings, he has long tried to forget.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Series: butchog au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677466
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	ride home

**Author's Note:**

> this is an accompanying piece of my jicheol filo au (pinned on my profile at [@kinqseokmin](http://www.twitter.com/kinqseokmin)). i don't think this could work as a stand-alone so for more context, please read the au first hahaha this will have taglish narration with filo dialogues. enjoy!!

the ride back from manila to bulacan, at the early hour of 7 in a saturday morning, was pretty quick all things considered. there was a traffic build up from edsa to the first toll gate, but it should be a smooth ride from there. 30 to 45 minutes tops, if they're not so lucky.

  
and yet it felt like the ride dragged on for hours.

  
maybe jihoon was just nervous. and for what, he's not exactly sure. did not really want to think much about it.

it's not like it's the first time they were alone together. _they were roommates._

  
but it's the first time they're coming home together. two months since soonyoung, jihoon's supposed roommate, _supposed best friend_ , moved upstairs to room with his boyfriend seokmin. two months since all of a sudden, seungcheol from childhood appeared at jihoon's door, saying he'd start living in the dorms for this semester since his thesis year has began.

two months since their lives, which were once intertwined, magically found its way to each other's again.

two months, and they're coming home at the same time. together.

  
seungcheol was jihoon's first best friend. the cool kid he had followed like a fool the moment he started walking. he was once jihoon's favorite person, the sort of kuya next door (seungcheol's a year older, yet jihoon never really called him anything but his nickname butchoy.) he's the boy who had always protected jihoon and played with him even if he's just a small kid who cried all the time.

  
maybe because seungcheol was once synonymous to home. because he was a part of jihoon's family even if he wasn't papa and mama's son, or his four _ate_ s' brother. maybe because almost all of the memories of jihoon's younger self at home has seungcheol in it. some of his pictures framed in their living room still have traces of him. seungcheol was even there in jihoon's earliest memory, holding his tiny hand while they munched on the huge tomatoes jihoon's lola had brought from the province. he was always there, in everything jihoon could think of while he's growing up. he was a huge part of jihoon's life.

and then, he wasn't.

it wasn't anything big. like jihoon had mentioned before, people drift apart, even childhood friends who were once stuck to each other. seungcheol was a year older, had gone to school a year ealier, had new friends he could play with which didn't really like the idea of a younger kid tagging along. seungcheol tried to make time for both jihoon and his new friends, along with his growing list of new hobbies. but seungcheol wasn't the only one growing up. 

jihoon found his own interests too, found his own set of new friends. soon even their weekends were filled with club activities, with hanging out with people in their own grade. soon seungcheol couldn't come over to wait with jihoon for the manong magtataho anymore, and jihoon didn't feel like waking up early because he has spent the previous night playing games with daniel who lived at the corner of their street.

soon he had only ever heard from seungcheol from mama, who had heard from tita jinkee. he did miss seungcheol, mostly when his _ate_ s teased him and there's no seungcheol to stand by his side. he missed him on the times he thought of something and seungcheol was still the first person he wanted to tell about. but seungcheol wasn't there anymore.

soon seungcheol had to move to a bigger school, and he's leaving jihoon again. but for some reason it didn't feel like when seungcheol had to leave for kindergarten, and little jihoon had to stay at home and wait for him to come back so they could play again. it didn't feel like when jihoon was in kindergarten himself, and seungcheol was in his first grade, who had his new friends who were bigger and didn't cry like jihoon.

for some reason, seungcheol graduating and moving to high school felt like a chapter finally coming to a close in the book that was jihoon's life. he was once jihoon's favorite person. and then he wasn't.

and that's okay. life went on.

but now, a couple of years later, he's driving jihoon back home.

jihoon's train of thoughts came into a halt when he felt a hand on his jaw. he quickly looked over seungcheol, who was grinning at him from the driver seat. one gaze outside and he realized they're almost home, with seungcheol only stopping due to the traffic light at their town's poblacion.

"lalim ng iniisip a," seungcheol said, still smiling that dimpled grin, "o inaantok pa?" he asked.

jihoon shook his head. he'd rather jumped off a cliff than admitting to seungcheol he was thinking of their childhood.

"direcho pala tayo sa'min ha," seungcheol told him just as he started driving again. jihoon nodded, he lived only about two houses away from seungcheol. he didn't need him to drive him home when he could walk from his place.

"pakita lang tayo kay mama, tapos hatid kita," seungcheol finished, swerving left right at the alleyway leading to their village.

"ha? bakit hahatid mo pa 'ko?" jihoon asked, confused. as if naman ang layo ng bahay nila.

"e syempre, para makita na din ako ni tita baby! saka binilin ka kaya sakin ni ate joy, diba!" seungcheol reasoned out, "uy si JR!" he suddenly said and jihoon looked infront to find one of their childhood playmates jonghyun, JR for short, riding a bicycle probably on his way home.

seungcheol hit the car horn, and JR turned around with a scowl. seungcheol's car wasn't tinted and the annoyance was ultimately replaced with a big grin the moment he saw the both of them. seungcheol waved as they passed by and then grinned at jihoon.

"friend mo ba sya sa facebook? sila na pala ni minki!" minki was also another childhood playmate, who also lived in the same neighbourhood as the three of them. they're all around the same age. jihoon only shrugged, he didn't really go around adding people from his hometown. mostly because he didn't really use his facebook, and he also didn't feel safe knowing his nosey kapitbahays could see his posts.

but anyway, seeing a childhood friend casually riding his bicycle at this early in the morning only meant they're indeed near home. and truly enough, just as seungcheol turned to another left, jihoon found the street they grew up in.

the baranggay jihoon grew up in was pretty ordinary. the families were mostly middle class people, despite some of them obviously a bit well-off than everybody else (case in point: seungcheol's family.) it was a small town where everyone pretty much knew each other, kids going to the same school, families attending the same church, mothers gossiping in the same wet market. everyone's familiar with each other, which could be the only explanation on how even if jihoon had stopped being friends with seungcheol, their families (especially their moms) didn't.

tita jinkee was running out of the house the moment seungcheol's car entered their garage. tito yeol, seungcheol's dad, was shaking his head, feigning annoyance as he told his wife to stop running. she paid him no mind as she went to greet jihoon first, hugging him and asking if he's feeling better.

"okay na po tita, don't worry." jihoon told her, and yet she still cupped his face, fussing over his temperature.

"kawawa naman ang bilog namin, ikaw naman kasi seungcheol bakit di mo inaalagaan?" tita jinkee quickly scolded her own son.

"hala! lagi kaya ako nakabantay ma! diba bilog?" seungcheol, who just greeted tito yeol, turned to them. jihoon, who blamed the familiarity of it all, felt a little playful, so he merely shrugged. 

seungcheol gasped but then he laughed, rounding to where jihoon and tita jinkee were standing. he placed a kiss on tita jinkee's cheek even if she's still holding jihoon.

"ma, pa, hatid ko lang muna si bilog sa kanila ha?" he said, already ushering jihoon out of his mother's hold.

"bilog daan ka dito bago kayo bumalik ng manila ha?" tita jinkee reminded and jihoon could only nod. he's still not sure why seungcheol had to walk him home in the first place.

their house was literally two houses away from seungcheol's. he doubted it would last a minute even if he walked at a normal pace. but he didn't call out seungcheol on it, since by the time he started reasoning out why he didn't need to, they had probably reach home.

which they have, because it was that quick. he could already hear his mother and ate joy yelling at each other because ate joy forgot to hang the clothes she left in the drier apparently.

"well, dito na 'ko," jihoon said, facing seungcheol. seungcheol was eyeing their house, and for a moment jihoon wondered if he wanted to be invited in. 

which was weird, if jihoon thought about it. why would he wanted to go inside jihoon's house when he could be going home and rest after the long drive?

"wait, yun ba yung kotse-kotsehan mo dati?" seungcheol suddenly asked and jihoon followed the direction of his gaze and found his old toy car his 5 year old self used to fit in. it was mostly a plastic chair designed as a car, with plastic wheels and a plastic steering wheel, which was useless because the car can only move if someone pushed it (it was seungcheol most of the time) but it was jihoon's favorite toy for a long time.

"ah oo. lalagyan na sya ng garden tools ni mama ngayon, para madaling hilahin kahit saan," jihoon explained, which was why the car was in their front yard where his mother grew some flowers and vegetables.

"grabe, ni ayaw mo nga pagalaw yun kahit kila ate joy dati? pano ka napapayag ni tita baby na ibigay sa kanya yun?" seungcheol joked and really, jihoon meant to kid back, but when he spoke, the words didn't come out as the joke he intended to be.

"matagal na din naman na kasi yun," jihoon started, "i grew out of it."

he was looking at seungcheol's face, so he saw the sudden shift in his expression. how the fond from thinking about that certain memory was replaced by a different emotion, a hint of guilt, a tad of regret. jihoon shook his head. seungcheol really needed to stop beating himself from something they weren't able to control.

"oh, di ko sinabi yan para mag-isip ka na naman ng kung ano a," jihoon said right away before seungcheol could apologize again. "ok na yun cheol, life happens."

seungcheol looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth close. he smiled. 

"sige uwi na muna ko-"

"MA NANDITO NA SI BILOG AT BUTCHOY!!" ate joy was suddenly yelling from their front door.

obviously, mama had to invite seungcheol in for breakfast, telling them she already texted tita jinkee and promised she'd let jihoon have his lunch in their place tomorrow before they go back to manila. 

"galeng, mag-balae kayo?" papa asked while they're seated around the dining table, watching his wife gushed over seungcheol. mama ignored him in favor of telling seungcheol, who was seated in front of jihoon, that she intentionally cooked adobo today because she knew butchoy is coming over.

"si butchoy nga yata talaga anak ni mama e, di ba kayo nagkapalit nyan bilog?" ate joy joked beside him and jihoon just looked at her.

"paano ko malalaman?" he asked and ate joy quickly glared at him as if to say 'sumasagot ka pa a'.

"tito, mga ate," seungcheol started, "tita baby, thank you po sa agahan" he said and grinned that gummy, dimpled smile mama was so enamoured with. true enough, mama was quickly praising how handsome butchoy had grown up.

"ang swerte mo bilog, bet na bet ni mama si butchoy e" ate joy commented yet again and ate irene giggled. papa snorted, reaching for the rice. 

"basta ha, kung magpapakasal kayo, kailangan mamanhikan muna! kahit parang kumpare ko na yun sila yeol at jinkee" papa said so nonchalantly as if what he said didn't make jihoon blushed to his roots.

and well maybe that really was the thing, despite the many years they weren't friends any longer. they may not be in each other's lives anymore, but since their families (especially their parents, their moms!) were still very close, they still got to be aware of the bits and pieces of what's going on with each other. jihoon knew about seungcheol's first girlfriend when he's in second year high school, and how tita jinkee didn't like her because she didn't greet her when she visited school for PTA meeting. he knew about seungcheol's awards, or how he injured himself when he's 15 during one of his basketball games. jihoon knew the course seungcheol wanted to take in college, and the schools he was considering to attend. they were all information his mother had casually inform him despite the fact that he never really asked in the first place.

that, and that for some reason, even when they're younger, their mothers had always concluded that he and seungcheol would somehow end up together. that mama and tita jinkee would be mag- _balae_ s in the future. it was a running joke in both families for a long, long time. they even kept at it even if he and seungcheol weren't in talking terms any longer. that even papa and tito yeol would join in the teasing when they're in the mood for it.

jihoon wondered what's with all the fuzz. obviously, he and seungcheol wouldn't end up together. 

seungcheol didn't even like him like that.

"butchoy ha," papa continued, "wag mong itatanan itong bunso ko."

"pa!" jihoon quickly said, scarlet in the face but his mom and sisters only giggled. jihoon couldn't even look at seungcheol, too embarassed. suddenly he's very much aware why he's nervous to have seungcheol over.

he couldn't look at seungcheol, so he missed the way he smiled sheepishly, grinning at his father and sharing a knowing glance at his mother.

seungcheol didn't like him that.

he couldn't have.


End file.
